Turn Flashlight Puppets into a Fun Game

You can create flashlight puppets both inside and out. Then, take it one step further and turn it into story time. It’s fun to take turns making up stories and creating something out of almost nothing!

Ages: 2 and up

Materials: Flashlights, socks, pipe cleaners

Length: 10 minutes per story

Number of players: 2 or more

1. Create your design.

Make story time extra fun by inventing your own story and using sock puppets to help tell the story. First off, put a sock on your hand to get a feel for the shapes you can make with it. Try adding things like pipe cleaners and other objects to make different shapes. Keep in mind that sometimes you don’t even need a sock. Use your hands, wrapping pipe cleaners around your fingers to make jut the right shape. Also look outside to see what you might be able to use. Flowers can be part of the scenery or a twig might make great horns or antlers.

2. Make the shape.

Put your hand up in front of a flashlight to make a shape on the wall. You can do this inside, or wait until it gets dark and make puppets outside against your house. Try a few different things out and practice a little bit first. You might want to designate one person as the flashlight holder and the others can make the shapes.

3. Assign a narrator and go!

Once you’re ready, choose one person to be the narrator and start the story. You can either have them tell the entire story or others can chime in, too. At the end, everyone trade roles and tell another story!